Call for Papers for Special Issue — Thunderbird International Business Review

Thunderbird International Business Review (TIBR) is pleased to invite submissions to a Special Issue on “Entrepreneurial ecosystems and their role in internationalisation”.

Submission Deadline: December 30, 2019

Guest Editor: Vanessa Ratten (La Trobe University, Australia)

About the Special Issue

High growth regions have been considered good examples of entrepreneurial ecosystems due to the way individuals, businesses, government and citizens cooperate. However, there is still a lack of theoretical and practical examples about how these ecosystems develop and change over time. This is surprising as internationalisation is often a product of these entrepreneurial ecosystems (Alvedalen and Boschma, 2017).

In this special journal issue, the topic of entrepreneurial ecosystems is considered broadly in order to capture both geographical and online ecosystems. This is important as there needs to be interdependence between entities in a region in order to be considered as an entrepreneurial ecosystem (Audretsch and Belitski, 2017; Makecki, 2011). Thus, regions that instill a sense of proactiveness through collective engagement are considered entrepreneurial. In addition, these regions need to foster forward thinking and futuristic planning (Spigel, 2017).

This special journal issue will focus on international best practice and examples of entrepreneurial ecosystems in order to understand how developed and developing regions operate, thereby taking a more international view to the current literature that has tended to focus just on the concept of entrepreneurial ecosystems without considering in much detail the context (Cohen, 2006; Mack and Mayer, 2016). This will enable the research and practice of entrepreneurial ecosystems to be extended to take into account new conceptualizations. In this special issue we welcome papers addressing these topics and issues.

Topics of Special Interest:

How are entrepreneurial ecosystems different based on geographic location?

What internationalisation theories complement existing research on entrepreneurial ecosystems?

How are developing and transitional economies different in their ecosystem environments?

Why do some places grow while others stagnate?

How can stakeholders encourage an entrepreneurial ecosystem to develop?

What is the role of regional policies in fostering entrepreneurial ecosystems?

How are digital entrepreneurial ecosystems developing?

What kind of government policies help or hinder entrepreneurial ecosystems?